Entrepreneurship Essay

This report will mainly focus on the traits, characteristics and skills of entrepreneurs used in three different context i. e. small, social and larger scale business, to manage, develop and sustain the business. It initiates with highlighting the term entrepreneur and entrepreneurship from different authors followed by theories on entrepreneurship to get a better understanding of traits and characteristics in detail. Then is states the benefits of entrepreneurial traits and characteristics.

It will then focus on how small business entrepreneurs use their traits and skills to develop and manage the business supporting it with detailed examples of the famous entrepreneurs. Further explains the skills and traits used by social entrepreneurs and large-scale entrepreneurs in business with different examples to get a deep understanding. Evaluating and comparing difference between all three entrepreneurs and traits and skills used by them, intrapreneurship is been explained in large businesses followed by the detailed conclusion in the end.

Introduction Entrepreneur and Entrepreneurship An entrepreneur is a person who manages, systematizes and assumes the risks of conducting a business. An entrepreneur can be described as a agent for change. He is a person who is willing to take risks – usually financial – in the pursuit of new ventures to make profits. (Casson, 2002) According to Schumpeter “entrepreneurs are innovators who use a process of shattering the status quo of the existing products and services, to set up new products, new services”. Schumacher, 1973) The process of finding unique ways of combining and blending resources is been known as entrepreneurship.

If the market value generated by the resources combined together is greater than the market value of these resources individually, the entrepreneur generates a profit. Suppose an entrepreneur who takes all the necessary resources to produce a pair of jeans that can be sold for twenty pounds, instead use the same resources to produce a backpack that can be sold for forty pounds will definitely make a profit by increasing the value those resources generates. Sobel, 2008)

The entrepreneurship starts with an action, the constructing of new business including the antecedents to its foundation, looking for the opportunities in the environment, spotting the opportunity that needs to be practiced and then evaluating the reasonability of the new business enterprise. (Kirby, 2003) Traits and characteristics of an Entrepreneur It is important to consider and look at some entrepreneurial theories by authors explaining what entrepreneurship is, when we are discussing entrepreneurial characteristics and traits.

It is necessary to do so because it has straight connection with recognizing the traits and characteristics of an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is been mainly described in two approaches utilized by different authors. The personality traits approach of Entrepreneurship is the first and the second is behavioral approach of Entrepreneurship. In the traits approach the personality type examines the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur is been judged based on their personality, characteristics and their traits to enable the identity of an entrepreneur understandable.

These unique characteristics in a person make them stand different among the crowd called as traits of an entrepreneur. As these are the key and influential factors behind the accomplishment of an entrepreneur. (Kaufman, P. J. , Dant, R. P. , 1998) * The qualities of an entrepreneur include taking counted risk, ability to motivate others, leadership skills and skills to overcome the crises, innovative and creative nature. * They are certainly the leaders and in the process of innovative destruction, they are major contributors.

They are open to new ideas, offers and people and try to figure the hidden opportunities in ever changing environment. (Kaufman, P. J. , Dant, R. P. , 1998) The behavioral approach aims at spotting, expressing and explaining the clear behavior of an entrepreneur. The traits of an entrepreneur are difficult or impossible to change but behavior is something that they learn like skills and abilities. It is more concentrated on what an entrepreneur does to develop a new venture and further to be establish. (Cuervo.

A, Ribeiro. D, Roig. S, 2007) By the above approaches, we can see the relation between the traits and the skills of an entrepreneur that enables them to be successful in the world. For successfully completing the set of activities as designed in the mind the skills and traits plays an important role in entrepreneurship. It is crucial to apply the characteristics and traits while developing the opportunities of the entrepreneurship among various types of business. (James L. Fisher and James V. Koch, 2008)

Importance of Traits and Characteristics in an Entrepreneur The success in business comes from various factors but the major factor in a success of business is the entrepreneur him/herself. The personality of an entrepreneur plays more important role than the other features like business knowledge etc. as it tells how strongly the entrepreneurs believes in them and the further the success f their business. Entrepreneurs are the people who think big and intermittently end up generating a change around the globe with their confidence and zeal.

Not every other person can cope up with the business situations only entrepreneurs can, which makes them different from the crowd. Thus while starting up and running a business the entrepreneurs must know their strengths and weaknesses as entrepreneurship entails the skill to form a founding team with matching characteristics and skills. (Timmons, 1994) How entrepreneurs use their traits and characteristics in small business A small business is a business, which is usually independently owned and funded, has less than 100 employees working and does not have much impact on ts industry to which it belongs. (Hatten, 2012).

Innovation is the trait that most of the entrepreneurs possess, while setting a small business entrepreneurs think differently and try to achieve their planned thoughts by their commitment and passion. Commitment and passion in a person is important even when they are not in the business context as these characteristics makes the person confident and focused in their lives. Taking an example of Max the young entrepreneur who came with an idea of introducing a product named Toepener.

Toepener is a simple handle located on the bottom of the doors of the washrooms that enables the users to open the door using their foot; this innovation was been brought in the market because some people are little extra hygiene conscious when using public washrooms. It is a clever solution, as according to the website one third of the individuals do not wash their hands while leaving the restroom therefore Toepener has turned out to be a solution to this issue. Max got the inspiration to produce this innovation by the restroom in this dorm. 5 Examples of Creative, Daring and Successful Young Entrepreneurs, 2011).

Therefore, in the above example we have seen the young entrepreneur who has started a small business with his innovative creation, a remedy for the problem around the globe. The idea was great but the skills and traits he need to make that idea into practice were his focus and believe in him to succeed in the market with the zeal. According to others, it was a problem but for Max it was an opportunity and he used his creativity to make this his stepping-stone.

Passion in an entrepreneur is also a very much-needed characteristic in order to follow their dreams with confidence and high enthusiasm. Taking an example, Shannon Guderian who was just an ordinary person who loves the car Ford Mustang from his childhood, at the age of 15, his mother bought him his own 1965 Mustang. He was very passionate about the Ford Mustangs and believed it represents freedom and image. He worked for mustang Parts Company after completing his school; at the age of 26, he quit his job and followed his dream.

He took bank loan, sold his car for the finance, bought inventory, and carried out his own small business in a hole in a wall of dimensions 650 square foot. From there he followed his passion for Mustangs and currently doing a business in a 27000 square foot building with annual sales reaching over $10 million. Guderian is an entrepreneur characterized by his passion for Mustangs and passion for people and he says people do trade with people not with organizations. Longenecker, 2008) Above example of Guderian demonstrates how the entrepreneur used his passion for Mustangs in developing a small business and developing it steadily to next level. His passion for Mustangs made him what he is today, his indispensible characteristic i. e. passion which motivated and influenced him to follow his dream for Mustang cars with self-confidence and zeal. How entrepreneurs use their traits and skills in social enterprises Before concentrating on the characteristics of social entrepreneurs we should know what are they and where they work.

A social entrepreneur is a person with unique and innovative solutions to solve the most imperative social problems of the society. They usually tackle the major issues of the society and offer their thoughts for the change and welfare of the society. They do not depend on the government to take actions they rather analyze what is going wrong and take appropriate measure to resolve the issues for the betterment of the society. (What is a Social Entrepreneur, N. D. The enterprise which conducts its trade for social or environmental purpose and not for making profits are been called social enterprise. Social enterprise have social mission, the enterprise know what they are trying to achieve, whom they are aiming to help and how they will help. They usually reinvest their profits to their social missions and do not share among the shareholders. (About Social Enterprise, N. D. ) The main characteristics of social entrepreneurs are examining opportunities available and making use of it with clear social goals to benefit the society.

As they identify opportunity by scanning the society and picking a need that has not been fulfill properly or at all. Social entrepreneurs are ambitious and always willing to do the welfare of the society if got a chance. (London, M. Morfopoulos, G. R. , 2009) For example: The Grameen bank (village bank) which was been started in 1983 by Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh revolutionized the economy. The bank offers micro loans to the people that are not financial sound, to help impoverished citizens achieve financial self-sufficiency through the medium of self-employment.

Muhammad Yunus went against the advice of the banks and government and purely believing in him and opened the bank on the principles of trust and solidarity. The bank helped people a lot, raised their standard of living and gave them a chance to make their life as they wanted. It became so popular that 58 more countries adopted this method of Grameen Bank including US, France etc. This results in the welfare of the society as Muhammad Yunus fulfilled the desires of the nation and raise the people of the country over poverty. Biography of Dr. Muhammad Yunus, 2011). From the above example it is evident that how Muhammad Yunus the social entrepreneur was able to make use of his skills and traits of being ambitious and identifying the opportunity to help the society with his social goal to benefit them.

Social entrepreneurs have the skills to communicate their vision and motivating people to contribute to their aspiring social objectives. Drive and strong willpower are also fundamental characteristics of a social entrepreneur. (London, M. Morfopoulos, G. R. 2009) For example: KIPP (knowledge is power program) founded in 1994 with a strong thought to make a classroom which will help children to develop their skills, knowledge, personality and qualities to be successful when they will go to college and make a good future for their communities. The founders of KIPP Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin with their skills to communicate their idea with the people of educating underserved children and also motivating their parents and guardians to make the children join the school to create a bright future.

KIPP offers free open enrolment to the students and has 125 KIPP schools with 39000 students. As by this brilliant program, the lives of the young children’s are now on track and further results in an excellent future. (KIPP, 2012) Thus, we can conclude from the above example that entrepreneurs like Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin used their skills and characteristics in developing a social enterprise, which include their determination, drive and ambitious social goals for the welfare of the children.

They also used their trait as motivating others and making others believe in what they are doing and influencing them to support them. Use of traits and skills of an Entrepreneur in large-scale business Entrepreneurs are been portrayed as risk takers and it is proved that they certainly take risk for their growth as an entrepreneur. It is a very true and famous saying by A. P. Gourthev “To get profit without risk, experience without danger, and reward without work, is as impossible as it is to live without being born. ” Therefore, more risk, more profit is right in the context of an entrepreneur.

Tolerance of risk, aim focused, self-believing and innovation are essential and important traits of an entrepreneur functioning in large-scale organizations. (Longenecker, G. J. , Moore,W. C. , Petty, W. J. , Palich, E. L. , 2006) Example: Darren Richards is a well-known and successful entrepreneur of the UK who started his business from nothing and built millions of pounds. Darren is an owner of a Website named datingdirect. com as the site needs personal information about the individual and helps people to find friends and partners.

The innovative idea came to Darren’s mind when he was surfing the net after his breakup with his female friend. He was looking for someone to have relation with over the internet but he concluded that every result was coming for US not for UK. So keeping that in mind, he saw an opportunity to develop a site, which enables the men and women to meet and be friends in their close enough area in UK. In 1999, he spent ? 2,500 for the website and got 40,000 members within three months.

Then he had an agreement with the manager of Barclays Bank to permit him the facility of the credit cards payment, as the website charges ? 5 a month, which users can pay from the credit cards etc. The concept of his worked, as in 2007, the website has over 4. 5 million members and making millions of profit. (Darren Richards Entrepreneur, 2010) The example above clarifies that Darren Richards is innovative as he thought out of the box idea and sticking to it till he succeed, he certainly took risk by investing on the website. Thus, we can conclude that Darren Richards had certainly used his traits, characteristics and skills in order to develop his business and be successful entrepreneur.

Creativity and leadership are other indispensible qualities of an entrepreneur. (Charantimath, 2006) Sir Richard Branson the chairman of the Virgin group are been possessed by creative thinking and leadership quality to manage, lead and influence other to pursue you. Sir Richard formed Virgin Airlines in 1984 that is one of his main businesses. He is so creative that he has a list of businesses done like virgin records, virgin rail, virgin airlines, virgin cola, virgin mobile, virgin earth etc.

He has diverse his field of business and always expanded the business with his different approach to think and qualities to manage under these diverse sectors. (Richard Branson Biography, 2005) Many of his upcoming projects like virgin money and many more that is yet to be announced. Therefore, it is evident that how being creative and leadership qualities help entrepreneurs to expand, develop and create chances out of nothing. As Branson is famous for his business risks and daring adventures in real life, he learnt from all of his experiences and many of his letdowns led to innovation and success.

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